Losing It
by SurlyCoach
Summary: Eric Taylor is on a quest to lose his virginity. One shot.


**LOSING IT**

The first thing Eric Taylor did when his family moved to town the summer before his sophomore year was to try out for the football team. It was now fall, and he was firmly a part of the fold.

Eric wasn't a bad kid, but as a good-looking football player, he was a popular kid. He pretty much did what his peers expected of him, careful only to steer clear of the excesses that would break his mother's heart.

So he was happy to catapult rolls of toilet paper into the front yard trees of the rival team's coach, but when the QB1 - - who wouldn't be QB1 in a month when Eric took his place - - suggested they throw a rock to shatter a window, he shook his head and backed off.

Taylor didn't have many qualms about sneaking in the back door of the movie theatre for a free three-in-a-row film festival, but when the senior players decided to sneak into a strip club, he pled illness.

When he went to the football parties, he willing took the cans of beer his buddies brought him, but when they brought out the moonshine, he said, "No thanks. I'll stick with beer."

He was anxious as the next guy to lose his virginity - - and he thought about it just as often - - but unlike so many of his fellow players, he didn't take the rally girls up on their casual offers. He told himself he'd pick a girl, take her on four dates in a row, and then ask for sex on the fifth.

He didn't know why he'd decided on that number, except that it was his number, right on the back of his jersey – - Taylor, 5 - - and it seemed reasonable. It wasn't too big a number that he'd have to wait too awfully long, and it wasn't too small a number that he'd feel like a jerk.

When it came to picking the girl to assist him on his quest to shed his virginity, he would do what his peers expected of him. He would date a girl his age, another sophomore, someone who would look up to him. He would choose a pretty girl, a peppy girl, and she would most definitely have to be a cheerleader. It didn't really matter if he loved her, as long as she was attractive. It didn't really matter if they had nothing in common other than football, as long as she'd let him talk about that. It didn't really matter if they couldn't have deep conversations, as long as she was good kisser.

So that was how Eric Taylor ended up one Saturday night on the couch of the Hayes' home. Mr. and Mrs. Hayes conveniently out of town. Date number 5. Necking with a pretty girl.

"Your older sister isn't home either, is she?" he asked. Eric had yet to meet the sister, though he knew from heresy that she dated one of the rival school's football players, Mo McArnold.

"Tami?" Shelley Hayes answered. "No. She's out." Shelley cut right to the chase and put a hand directly in his lap. It made him jump. "It's just us tonight."

Eric was a little intimidated by the way Shelley just dove right in and started unsnapping his pants. He'd expected a slow build where he'd ask permission at some point. But there she was, just pushing him down on the couch and…snap. Zip. Just as she was starting to tug down on the waist of his jeans, Eric heard the front door flung open. It hit the wall and banged against it. "That asshole!" he heard a girl's voice shout. "I knew it!" The door slammed shut. "Mo!" She was muttering to herself as her footsteps came down the hall.

Shelley leapt to the other side of the couch and smoothed her skirt. Eric was nervously struggling to zip and snap his pants when Tami Hayes walked into the room. She took one look at him and her eyes dropped to his hands just as he clicked the snap in place. Her eyes went back up to his. They were gorgeous, blue eyes - - he couldn't help but notice - - but they were flashing, livid, mad as hell. "Who are you and what the hell are you doing?" she asked.

"Uh…" he stuttered… "Uh, I'm your sister's boyfriend and we were just uh…"

"You know my sister's fifteen, right?"

"Well, yeah, so am I – "

"Get up. Get your stupid little letterman jacket off the back of my arm chair, and get the hell out of my house."

"Tami! Stop it!" Shelley seethed.

"You're fifteen, Shelley."

Shelley stood up, shook her bangs, and yelled, "You've got some nerve! How old were you?"

"Yeah," said Tami, as Eric rose hastily and grabbed his jacket and threw it on, "well I've learned a few things and now I'm going to pass them on to you."

"Oh, so you're making it your personal mission to make sure I never have any fun?" Shelley shouted. "To ruin all my relationships!"

Eric was at the front door and reaching for the knob. He wanted desperately to escape. "Hey, you!" called Tami. "Get back here."

"You…uh…" he took several hesitant steps toward the living room, "told me to leave," he said.

This older one was just as aggressive as her little sister, but she didn't like him, which made her much more intimidating. She was also much more beautiful. Well, maybe not conventionally. Maybe a lot of guys would find Shelley better looking, but not Eric. To Eric, this girl…wow. There was something simultaneously frightening and sexy about the way she carried herself. He was almost too nervous to notice, but he noticed all right.

"Tell my sister you're sorry."

"For…what?" he asked.

"For trying to seduce her and then discard her."

"Who said I was going to discard her?"

"Well, do you love her?" Tami asked, putting a hand on her hip and jutting it out.

His eyes were drawn instinctively to the flattering curves of her body. "Well, I…we've only been on five dates, so I…"

"Exactly. You've only been on five dates. Now say you're sorry."

"Sorry."

"Like you mean it," Tami insisted.

"Tami! I hate you! I hate you!" Shelley yelled and ran down the hall to her bedroom. The door slammed and the little Precious Moments trinkets on the end tables shook.

Tami stood glaring at Eric. "What's your name?" she asked.

"Eric Taylor."

She strutted over to the arm chair and sat down, putting a foot up on the coffee table with a loud slam. Her legs were long and slender and he tried not to stare. "You're the new guy who just moved here this summer, right?"

"Yeah."

"Sit down," she ordered, gesturing to the couch. He looked longingly at the door, but he sat down.

"So, just now, when you were about to take my little sister's virginity," she said. "Were you planning to use a condom?"

"Uh…" God, who the hell was this girl? He'd never met anyone like her in his life. Beautiful, protective of her sister, fearless, frank, brazen, and . . . scary. Damn she was scary. "Yeah, I…I thought of that. I brought that."

"Well now," she said sarcastically, taking her foot off the table and sitting up straighter to look at him, "aren't you just the perfect gentleman."

"Listen, I didn't ask her to do anything. I didn't pressure her at all. I didn't – "

"And what were you planning to do tomorrow? Were you planning to ask her out again?"

"Sure."

"Because you like her?"

The truth was, not really. Shelley could be kind of annoying. A little overexuberant. And she wasn't all that interesting to talk to. But she was attractive. She liked him. She was willing. And he hadn't really been thinking ahead to the week _after_, or the week after that, or the week after that…God, maybe he was a jerk. Maybe this crazy older sister was right to think he was. "Sure," he lied. "I like her lots."

Tami Hayes studied him. He was pretty sure she didn't believe him. She stared right into his eyes. "You can go now," she said.

He practically ran for the door. He got in his car and shut the door, grateful to be out of that house. He'd call Shelley tomorrow and let her down gently, tell her he was sorry but they just weren't right for each other. It _had_ been a selfish thing he was about to do, having sex with a girl he didn't care about just to hit a milestone. He had known their relationship wasn't going to last long after that, and he hadn't really cared. It was better to break it off now, before he hurt her. His mama hadn't raised a jerk. No she had not. She'd _tried_ to raise a gentleman.

He'd break it off as gently as he could. And he'd be happy never to see those two sisters again. Well, he'd have to see Shelley sometimes. She was in one of his classes, and she was a cheerleader. But Tami he should be able to avoid. She was two years ahead of him in school. He could avoid crossing her path. He _would_ avoid it.

If he could just make it through the next year until Tami graduated and not have to come face to face with her again, that would be a relief.

Then she'd be out of his world, thank God. Crazy girl. Crazy, bold, brazen, beautiful, unusual girl.

He turned the key in the ignition. It whirred to life.

If he was lucky - - and he'd been pretty damn lucky most of his life so far - - he'd never, ever have to talk to Tami Hayes again.

**/ AND THAT THERE'S THE END /**


End file.
